On this week's episode of Thinking Out Loud, KBIA's Darren Hellwege visited with City of Columbia Volunteer Coordinator Leigh Contwitz about the upcoming Clean-Up Columbia event and other volunteer opportunities. Trevor Harris also filed a story from the James Apartments about a local group working to salvage architectural elements from the 1903 structure before its planned demolition.

Recently, one of the biggest issues on the Columbia City Council's plate has been the proposed demolition moratorium on buildings in downtown Columbia, such as Shakespeare's Pizza. KBIA’s Jason Hoffman tells us why the debate still matters even though the ordinance failed.

On April 7, Columbia will see a competitive city council race, with nine candidates running for the First Ward seat alone. One candidate in particular has a unique pulse on the community. Sal Nuccio has owned Eastside Tavern on West Broadway for the past seventeen years. Now he’s making his second run for local office, after running for mayor in 2010. Nuccio spoke with KBIA’s Emerald O’Brien on his perspectives on the community from behind the bar.

When Mary Ratliff moved to Columbia from Mississippi in 1959, she was leaving one of the epicenters of American segregation and the burgeoning civil rights movement. But that doesn’t mean she escaped experiences of racism and segregation in her new home.

“It was subtle here when I first came," Ratliff said. "In fact I've made the comment many times, that Columbia is 'Big Little Dixie.' It wasn’t a whole lot different from Mississippi.”